Finder’s Keep Review

Finderâ€™s Keep is another dungeon crawling, monster bashing, loot fest in the vein of similar games. Will it loot your free time?

Finderâ€™s Keep is, as hinted by its puntastic name a dungeon crawler. The player is thrust into a dungeon with lousy equipment and fights a series of increasingly disturbing monstrosities to gain power experience and loot in the shape of larger items to stab or avoid being stabbed with. The game uses a simple top-down view for dungeon exploration. The dungeon is shrouded in mist until the player explores it and stumbles upon treasure or combat.

Combat is a very simple affair. The player can unleash standard attacks, a far more powerful but less accurate attack called a haymaker or assume a defensive stance. The game tells the player what the monster is planning to do next and this introduces a modicum of strategy as the player has to react correctly to avoid being pummeled into paste, such as blocking when the monster winds up for a devastating attack. Monsters are often weak to a certain kind of damage, such as crushing and resistant to others so using the right weapon is important.

Unfortunately, Finderâ€™s Keep critically lacks gameplay depth. While the game looks pretty, it just has no skill or interesting gameplay. The dungeons all look the same and are very short and mindless. There is never anything to do except fight monsters and occasionally combine one item with another. There is nothing wrong with simple games, but other simple but effective games like Faif have a gameplay hook and actually require more than dumb luck. Finderâ€™s Keep does not.

Battles are exceedingly dull affairs which are based almost entirely on chance. If the player runs into a too tough monster, there is nothing to be done except to grind until better equipment is found. If the battle system causes the player to miss a lot, theyâ€™re dead. If the player fails to find a certain kind of weapon due to random chance and runs into a resistant monster there is nothing for it but to grind constantly until one is found. The gameplay never evolves and the limited size of the playerâ€™s inventory is a constant annoyance. A slight redeeming feature is the game’s sense of humor; there is some funny dialogue here and there.

Finders Keep doesnâ€™t look that great either. Monster design is unimaginative, there are too many palette swaps and the creatures arenâ€™t very interesting. There is some nice graphics for equipment however.

Finderâ€™s Keep does have a little replay value due to the copious amount of loot to be had. Most trips to the dungeon will reward the player with new items so they can get just that little bit stronger. The gameplay never changes and the lack of even the slightest bit of strategy dooms the game to a short shelf life.

Finderâ€™s Keep is perhaps worth a game or two and its dungeons are bite sized so itâ€™s great for killing a few minutes.